Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/135

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NOTES AND QUERIES.
111

of sex, which is probably determined before the egg is laid, as it is difficult to suppose that the process of incubation can determine sex.

Herbert Fortescue Fryer (The Priory, Chatteris).


Weights of Birds.—The following birds were shot in Sussex, Kent, or Berkshire, and weighed by me in the flesh; so that I can answer for the weights being correctly enumerated. Nearly all the rarer species belong to me, and are now being exhibited at the Reading Museum:—

1894.—May 5th. Dunlins, 1 oz. 1 drachm; 1 oz. 2 drachms; 1 oz. 6 drachms.

July 1st. Avocet, 9½ oz. 3rd. 10½ oz.

Aug. 20th. Crossbill, 1¼ oz.

Sept. 13th. Oystercatcher, 1 lb,; Knot, 4 oz. 17th. Merlin, 7 oz. 1 drachm.

Oct. 22nd. Sheldrake (young), 2 lb. 6 oz. 28th. Peregrine (immature female), 2¾ lb.

Nov. 10th. Shoveller (male), 1 lb. 3 oz. 16th. Avocet, 9 oz.

Dec. 27th. Merganser (female), 1 lb. 10 oz. 31st. Great Northern Diver (starved, immature), 6 lb.

1895.— Jan. 7th. Norfolk Plover, 1 lb. 5½ oz. 23rd. Wild Duck, 2 lb.; ditto (female), 2 lb. 2 oz. 16th. Little Auk, 4 oz.